AN elderly motorist went on a high-speed terror drive the wrong way along one of Hampshire’s busiest motorways.

The pensioner drove about seven-and- a-half-miles against oncoming traffic along the M27.

Police were alerted when a blue Peugeot 207, driven by a man in his 70s, was spotted near junction eight of the M27 travelling westbound in the fast lane of the eastbound carriageway in the early hours of yesterday.

The drama happened just after 3am. Traffic officers took up to ten minutes to stop the driver, who was going at speed, near Rownhams services.

Police received “numerous calls” from members of the public, though no one was injured.

Officers from the Totton Roads Policing Unit managed to stop the traffic going in the correct direction by creating a road block.

They drove alongside the driver on the right side of the carriageway to get the car to stop – although their first attempt failed.

Although there were no reports of near misses, police said it was lucky that it had been the early hours of the morning otherwise the incident could have been more serious.

Police said they had spoken to the man and after evaluation of the circumstances no further action would be taken. It is believed the driver was in a confused state.

David Cox, 27, of Bishopstoke, was driving towards Brighton.

He told the Daily Echo: “I noticed a car on the opposite side of the motorway flashing their lights at me and all of a sudden I saw a car heading towards me in the fast lane – I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“It shook me up as you don’t see this kind of thing every day.”

Another motorist tweeted police saying: “Any reason why there was a car driving the wrong way up the M27 this morning coming towards me? I was in shock at around 3am”.

The same person had tweeted on their own account: “That was scary – just had a car driving the wrong way up the motorway towards me.”

A police spokesman said: “It was just lucky it was in the early hours of the morning when the road was quite empty otherwise things could have been much worse.

“We’d like to thank those motorists who kept their heads and quickly called us to alert us to the danger.

This allowed us to put roadblocks in place and stop the vehicle bringing this unfortunate incident to an end without anyone getting hurt.”